You give and take away...

I suppose the Lord has to take away for you to see what you used to take for granted.

When I think of all of our blessings with Reid my mind always goes back to the song Blessed Be Your Name. I remember hearing this song at church when I was 6 mths or so pregnant, and had just learned of his multicystic dysplastic kidney. I clearly remember, like it was yesterday, holding my perfectly round belly at the time singing at the top of my lungs with tears stinging my eyes "you give and take away, you give and take away, my heart will choose to say, Lord blessed be your name". The Lord had given us life, and taken away his kidney. He has done this for a reason, unknown at the time, and still now without a clear purpose for our family. I believe it is more strength to grow as a family, and for my husband and I, but we are not quite there yet (who ever is you know?).

Recently, within the last month, Reid joined us for service, sleeping soundly in my arms. Greg Long started singing our song~ Blessed be your name. It was surreal as I held my sleeping, beautiful, healthy 6 month old and again belted out those lyrics and had tears streaming down my face. I am so grateful for my son, and his health, and our blessings. I am so grateful for the trials and tribulations that I have experienced with him, because I can truly sit back and let the love pour into my heart, with little effort on mine or his part. His health is perfect, so worrying and fretting, as I did with Mason isn't a part of our dynamic. As I write this I realize that His purpose is a little more clear. The Lord wanted to me slow down, soak it all in and enjoy the moments I will never get back with my wonderful boys and husband. It is hard sometimes to think that is the only reason, like teaching Reid's mommy to take it easy is worth my son having one less functioning kidney. I just don't think I am that important. I hope Reid's journey teaches us lessons for a lifetime to come.

Reid had his 6 month ultrasound and doctor appointment this morning. His check up went great! His cysts are shrinking and his good kidney is growing at a larger rate to pick up slack. They don't want to see us for the routine 9mth check up, they are waiting till he is a year, because he is doing exactly as he should~ picking up the slack and growing and functioning like any 6 month old boy.

Blessed be Your name....


We went to the park yesterday and took a minute to swing, and soak up the sun and crisp air! My little bit of earthly Heaven!

Rub a dub dub

Only one little boy in the tub. My wonderful, fantastic, cheerful babysitter bathed the older boys in the afternoon so I did not have to bathe the older two, so I took the opportunity snap some photos of my big baby in the bath. He is fallen in love with all things round, so you get to see him enjoying a perfect yellow tennis ball at bath time. Since he was two months old or so he has demanded to sit up in the bath just like his older brothers. He is quite the pro...

Cowboys

There is something adorable about boys dressed up as cowboys. Of course I couldn't send my boys to school on rodeo day without the proper attire. I searched high and low for inexpensive little adorable boots, but I was clearly a month to late in the town of the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. Everything was gone in the stores, so I drove out to Magnolia to find some much wanted boots and hats! Of course while I was there I couldn't resist some wonderful boots for myself...photos to come of my gear to come, I promise. (It amuses me to think you all care what my gear looks like...but hey what can I say?)

Adorable little ones...

The simple things...

just aren't so simple. My sister's Houston wedding reception was last night. Of course I needed to get all dressed up and try out my new smokey eyeshadow from Benefit. I had a plan. Put baby down for a nap, shower, shave my legs, do my hair and then start the make-up process.

Baby had a different plan. Mommy shower. Right when she has shampoo in her hair, scream bloody murder, only after sleeping for a quick 30 minutes. Stare at mommy like a crazy nut because she came and got me wet with a towel wrapped around her head. Be scared to nurse from this towel lady, and then require to be close to her instead of watching wonderful Praise Baby dvd while she continues with her plan.

So I got creative. Bring the high chair into the bathroom and hand baby different random things to play with that I could find on or under the sink. This didn't last to long, but I naturally pulled out the camera in the midst of my make up session to snap a few happy shots.





Life just isn't quite so simple, but there is no other life I would ever choose to have.

Dibol

It has been too long since we have visited our favorite place to escape. Out in the country Glenn's family owns a fabulous house that sits on a large number of acres with a private lake, and fantastic trails all over. Glenn rides his dirt bike, I ride the four wheelers, and the boys ride along in the mule in these trails! The weekends are full of relaxing, fun with family, yummy cooking and eating, and peacefulness. Remember though, this peacefulness looks totally different than the peacefulness we would of experienced 6 years ago before our crazy little people joined our lives!

We shared our last visit to Dibol with great new friends~ the Blakes. About a year ago when we did the nursery we met Doug, who is totally into all things Glenn. I think they are kindred spirits. They wakeboarded a lot last summer, and both love to ride dirt bikes. After Reid was born, I met Taylene for a second, and then we enjoyed this weekend to Dibol together, and it was really great! We found out we shared several things in common, stating~ "No way, me too" several times throughout the weekend. They have an adorable little man, Ryder who is two. We really enjoyed our escape and glad they came along...

Trip to the Dibol Museum






Riding

Glenn and Doug

Glenn and Ayden



Glenn and Mason


Glenn and Reid

First Swim

We got one day of warmth, so of course that means spa heater is turned on and the boys enjoyed a swim. When Mason was out of the water, he was very confused about the chattering going on in his teeth. He said "Mama, why are my teeth going like this?" chatter chatter chatter...

It was a good taste of whats to come. In the spring and fall I get bummed that the boys can't freely play in their backyard with a swing and play stuff. I do know I will be living it up this summer with our wonderful pool and I will quickly forget my spring time play time blues.

Photos

Have I mentioned how much I love my husband's new camera?

All out of order...

Catch up here is nice. When life is to overwhelming I tend to blog. I think that it gives me happiness to know that I can look back on this and remember the happy days in the midst of the memories of craziness that I know will surface some day.

Valentine weekend we had a family get away to Galveston. We stayed at the beach house, and had some awesome family times at Ihop, the aquarium, and the rainforest cafe...







And teething biscuits. To me teething biscuits are babysitters (unless you worry about the choking hazard, but he is never alone). He loves his biscuits after meal as brothers are finishing up, or before when I am cooking.